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About

Everything we learn through trial and error. Especially food.

Welcome to my messes and successes in the kitchen. I hope you stay a while!

I'm Kate.

My husband, Jason, and I are thirty-somethings
living in the Rochester, New York suburbs. We met at work, where we both have
incredibly technical day jobs - his poison is software development,
mine's environmental design & product stewardship. I grew up in upstate New York, with homemade cookies in
the cookie jar and homemade birthday cakes. Homemade coffee cakes for
breakfast spread with thick, homemade jam. Huge slabs of ribs covered
with barbecue sauce and grilled for hours. Homegrown potatoes, onions
and tomatoes. Jason, resident taste tester and tech support, grew up in Oklahoma, where his love for all things mushrooms was nurtured.

Winn
was born in June 2012 and his brother arrived right before Easter 2014. We've yet to find any food Winn really doesn't like and while
crackers are one of his all time favorites, he loves mushrooms and
garlic just as much as mom and dad. and fresh baked cookies, muffins,
and scones, my own personal weaknesses.

The evolution of kitchen trial and errorWe bought our house in the spring of 2009, six months before we married. And quickly realized I may have more counterspace than our apartment, but we definitely have an Easy Bake oven.

Shortly after we were married - when all the wedding plans were finally done - I started cooking. But I didn't just cook. I made pasta from scratch. and ice cream. I baked bread. fried doughnuts. made oreos from scratch. and my husband almost fell out of his chair at dinner when the answer to "what do you want to do tomorrow?" was "make butter."

I started posting pictures of the food I made to my facebook profile. The pictures weren't all that pretty, but soon friends and coworkers were asking for recipes and placing requests for birthdays and parties. At first I really didn't want to blog - it seemed like too much work at a time when I just plain didn't have any [along with being newlyweds, Jason and I were both finishing master's degrees]. Jason pushed and I reasoned a blog would be an easier way to keep track of exactly what I make and my notes about it. I finally caved - on a whim - in January 2010, while he was out of town. It all started with a souped up point and shoot camera and a simple loaf of bread. and that was it.

...and the lack of capitalization - i know it drives some of you crazy - but i honestly couldn't care less.

I am a featured contributor to Gojee, a unique website that recommends recipes hand picked by bloggers based on your recent grocery store purchases. It's a completely new way of answering "what's for dinner?"

I participate in the Secret Recipe Club. To my fellow SRCers: each recipe of mine that has been featured by another blogger has a statement at the bottom saying who featured it and when. I hope this helps you identify recipes that haven't yet been a SRC selection.